


Based on a True Story

by ConstructiveRomance



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Original Character is Next Gen, Side minor Ron/Susan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25980667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstructiveRomance/pseuds/ConstructiveRomance
Summary: Rose's parents were not overly strict, but there were certain things she was not allowed to do. When she watched the Harry Potter movies behind their backs, disobeying them, she learned the hard way that some rules were there only for her benefit./EWE
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	Based on a True Story

" _Rose,_ come on!" Her mothers voice rang from the living room, sudden and abrupt. Rose jumped at the sound, but continued to run around her room in search of her most prized possession. She couldn't spend a whole night without her teddy, it was unthinkable. Unreasonable.

She was starting to feel anxious now, and this was only heightened when she heard the foreboding sound of her Mothers footsteps on the stairs. Rose pulled on her rucksack in a hurry, not bothering to fix the jacket under it that was half caught under a strap. When her Mum spoke again, this time she sounded very tired, "Rose, what is taking so long? You're going to be late, you know,"

It was no secret that her Mum hated to be late. As soon as she walked into the room, Rose couldn't help the tears that welled in her eyes, "I can't find Snowy, Mum. She's not anywhere!"

Hermione knelt in front of her daughter, her expression softening as she gently ran her knuckles over the girls cheek, "Don't worry, I can find him for you. You silly billy, did you forget about magic?"

Rose smacked her own head, feeling the stupidity, but couldn't help the relieved giggle that bubbled out of her, "That _was_ very silly of me."

"Yes it was, my genius daughter," Her Mum said, poking her in the ribs which elicited another laugh. "Accio Snowy." From an unseen hiding place, Rose's cuddly toy came flying towards them, zipping through the air with ease.

Rose couldn't help the gleeful sound she emitted once Snowy was back in her arms, and hugged it tightly.

"Now, Rose, I want you to call me if you need anything, okay? Remember what I told you, there's a phone in the living room -"

"I can call you if I need you," Rose parroted with ease, having heard this multiple times now.

Hermione straightened the long plait of Rose's auburn hair, her eyes straying over the young girls face, "If you need me for anything, I will be right there. I love you, and we'll be all together when you're home." She pulled Rose into a tight hug then, pressing a sloppy kiss onto her cheek.

"Mum!" Rose protested, but there was a grin on her face. "I'll be fine, it's not my first time, you know, I've had sleepovers before."

In an action Rose had seen many times before, Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes, I know, you're very grown up, but we've both been missing Dad and the boys lately so if you do need to come home that would be understandable."

She wrinkled her nose, "I'm not missing Sirius or Alex."

Taking her daughters hand, Hermione led them to the floo and sighed, "I'm sure they miss you. We'll have a lovely dinner tomorrow when everyone is home. Now," She picked some powder out of the pot and placed it in Rose's hand, "Make sure you very clearly say 'The Nest', okay? I'm going to come after you to make sure you get there okay. Have you got everything you need? Toothbrush? Snowy? A good book?"

Rose nodded her head rapidly to the questions, feeling confident now she had her cuddly toy. "Thanks, Mum. 'The Nest'."

In a contrast to both her parents, Rose rather liked floo travel. She felt it was like one, long muggle slide and tried her best to let out long laughs as she went along. Rose couldn't understand why her Mum struggled with the landing, it was clear from the oncoming light and slowing movement that they were nearing the end.

Graceful as a cat, Rose jumped out of the fireplace and was immediately engulfed in a hug, "Rose!"

"Hi, Cathy!" She said brightly. Cathy was a few months older than Rose, but they would attend Hogwarts at the same time, and that was all that mattered to Rose as far as age was concerned. They had been friends since they were babies, a fact they both liked to tell everyone who met them. Not everyone could say they had a best friend since they were _zero_ years old. Cathy was already quite a few inches taller than Rose, a fact she didn't like nearly so much, with vibrant red hair and countless freckles that spread across her nose.

"Hey, Rose!" Another voice said, and she leaned around to wave at her other friend, who was much cooler and therefore less eager. Dominique had white blonde hair and big blue eyes, the former was something Rose deeply coveted, it looked like something from a princess movie.

Nonetheless, she gave the girl a wide smile.

"Hi Hermione, you didn't have to drop her off. I was just going to get her," Cathy's Mum, Susan, said. She reached over to give both of them hugs before chatting to Hermione.

Rose turned to her friends, "What do you want to do?"

They shared a look that told Rose there was a secret she was not included in. This stung initially, but then Cathy was beckoning her and they were running to her bedroom. Dominique trailed behind, and for a moment, Rose resented how silly she felt for running. Why couldn't she be cool and unconcerned like Dom?

This thought fled as they arrived at Cathy's bedroom door, only to be interrupted by her younger sister, Amelia, who was seven and a royal pain as far as Rose was concerned. Although she shared her sisters hair colour, Amelia's skin was fair and free from any freckles or anything that would make her interesting.

"Hey, I want to join, too!"

" _Amelia,_ you have your own friends," Cathy replied, her voice whiny and moaning already at the prospect of playing with her sister. They had been together all day, she didn't want to spend any more time with her.

Without waiting on a response, Cathy shoved her friends into her room and slammed the door. They all glanced at each other, worried that the younger girl would run to their Mums and get them in trouble. Thankfully, her footsteps seemed to indicate she was going back to her room.

"Rose, I'm off! Be good! Call me if you need me!"

Rose, who was already shrugging off her bag and coat, shouted back, "Ok, Mum! Bye!"

"Love you,"

"Love you, too!"

Dominique sat on the floor, her legs outstretched, and reached for Cathy's pygmy puff to play with. Rose's eyes roamed around her friends room, searching for any new addition to the familiar surroundings, but nothing seemed to have changed since the last time she had been over. Cathy was a great artist, Rose knew, and she took the time to admire the various paintings scattered all over the walls.

"We have a surprise," Cathy said, leaning forward on her bed with wide eyes, biting her lip as she tried to contain the information.

"A surprise? We didn't plan anything though?"

Dominique rolled her eyes, "That's why it's a surprise, Rose." She dropped the act then and looked to Cathy before continuing, a grin on her face that made her look the closest to giddy she had been all evening, "We got a copy of _it."_

"It?" Rose snapped, annoyance building in her at her friends inability to simply reveal whatever they were hiding.

"We got a copy of the last few movies!" Cathy burst out, her voice high pitched and breathy. "We can finally watch them!"

Something in Rose's stomach dropped as she took in this information, and she felt a whine of pain as anxiety began to rise, "But - but we're not supposed to - my Mum and Dad said I can't watch it until -"

"I _told_ you she wouldn't watch it," Dominique interrupted, flashing a look to Cathy. They were cousins and it was in glimpses like now that she could sometimes see similarity between them. It kept balance between the three of them most of the time: Cathy was Rose's best friend, Dominique was her cousin. She didn't feel like that right now and felt the inexplicable need to cry threaten her.

Rose tried to shake this off, embrace the annoyance instead, "Your parents are barely even in it, what do you know?"

"Yeah? At least I'm not a scaredy cat,"

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"Shut up!" Cathy shouted before she could help herself. Immediately, she clapped a hand over her mouth and they all waited with wide eyes to see if Susan would burst through the door with a punishment on the tip of her tongue. Her words had the intended effect though because no one spoke for several moments. At last, Cathy said quietly, "Come on, Rose. We've both wanted to know for ages what happened. Fred told me it was one of the best things he had ever seen."

Rose sighed. It was a well-known and accepted fact that the war against Voldemort and Harry Potters story had been allowed to be written as fictional books in the Muggle world, and then made into movies. All of the children in the Weasley family were allowed to watch the movies at different stages, but usually the last two movies were saved until they were in Hogwarts.

Rose, Cathy and Dominique wouldn't be going for another year. Rose wasn't an official Weasley, but she was an honorary member, and all of the older cousins were incessant in their gloating for having seen the conclusion to the series. Rose's parents insisted that there was nothing of interest that they hadn't already told her, that it was simply too frightening at her age and she didn't need to know it all yet.

There was certainly a feeling that they were hiding something from her. From the way her Dad sighed, almost sad and asked why she was even interested in them - _'Rosie, you know that a lot of it is made up.. It's not exactly true to life. It's more based on a true story, okay?' -_ and with the way her Mum seemed almost angered by its existence; there had to be something wrong. If it's not all true, what could it hurt Rose to watch it?

She looked up at her friend again as Cathy bounced with excitement on the bed, "Okay, okay, we can watch them." The other girl cheered, punching the air with theatrics, before settling down.

"Bloody brilliant. We'll start after dinner. We'll finally get to see our parents in action!"

* * *

Hermione woke on Sunday morning with a smile on her face. Despite being a morning person, that wasn't a regular occurrence for her. Most mornings she awoke groggy, craving a cup of caffeine to give her the clarity she needed heading into work.

Today, she didn't think there was anything that could dampen her mood. Hermione had a lovely Saturday evening, curled in front of the fire with a glass of wine and her latest book. With three children, it was rare that Hermione or her husband were afforded that kind of peace. Although, now they were older and no longer creeping down the stairs after bedtime it was certainly easier.

She felt a little pang at the thought of her husband, Harry. It had been years since they spent two weeks away from each other, and all the letters and calls in the world couldn't replace the physical presence of him. They were independent people, to be sure, but there was something disarming about his lack of presence.

He was away with their two youngest, Sirius and Alex, at a muggle camp with Ron and his kids. Although it was a lovely idea, especially as Ron's kids were devastated to say goodbye to their older siblings returning to Hogwarts after Easter, Hermione regretted it merely hours afterwards. Ron's kids were troublemakers at the best of times, and she didn't trust Harry not to try spark some mischief in his sons for one minute.

It had given her some truly wonderful time alone with Rose though. As the oldest, it had been quite some time since the girl had a parent to herself, and it had been nice. They watched movies, went out for dinner, to the shops and visited friends. There had been plenty of reading, learning, lecturing, too, sometimes to Rose's chagrin - other times, to her delight.

Even taking all of this into account, Hermione couldn't help but miss her family dearly. There was something so fulfilling and soothing about having all five members under one roof; a special kind of peace. Hermione dreaded next year when Rose would leave them for Hogwarts.

She was glad Rose got to have a sleepover with her friends, too. It always left her daughter in a bright, excitable mood that entertained Hermione endlessly.

Hermione was sitting on her couch, a cup of steaming tea in her hands, when her fireplace roared to life. Surprised, she set down her tea with haste and rushed toward the floo. Rose fell into her arms, clutching closely before stepping back, "Hi, Mum."

There was something wrong. Hermione watched her daughter carefully, but forced an expression of enthusiasm onto her face, "Hi, love, how was your night?"

Her left hand fiddled with the strap on her bag, while her right hand clutched the white owl Snowy with fierce protection, "It was good. I'm going to put my stuff in my room."

Hermione struggled with whether to question Rose further before finally deciding there was no point in delaying the inevitable. Crouching low, she held her chin, "Rose, is everything okay? You seem a bit down. You can tell me anything, you know that,"

For a brief moment, Hermione thought she saw something like anger in Rose's face, but then she looked despondent again. Hermione must have imagined it. The girl nodded, sniffed, and pulled herself from her Mum's embrace.

Hermione watched her leave with a heavy heart. She hoped the girls hadn't been mean, or said something cruel. Frowning, Hermione wrote a quick note to Susan to ask if everything went well last night as Rose seemed a bit out of sorts.

Rose was still so young, but already, she bore some of her parents faults. Hermione resolved that she would attempt again this evening to get Rose to open up. Her heart clenched in her chest a little, thinking of what could possibly make her daughter so upset. Normally, Rose returned from sleepovers with Cathy walking on air, cracking jokes and retelling every single second of the night in great detail. This was most unusual.

She knew Rose and Dominique clashed occasionally, but it had never been concerning before.

This train of thought was lost as a pop indicated the arrival of the remaining members of the family. She let out a loud laugh as her sons dove at her, Sirius winding his arms around her waist and Alex gripping her left leg. Hermione ran her hands through their hair, "Hello, my boys, it's so good to have you home!"

She raised her eyes then to see Harry and couldn't help the beaming smile she knew she sported. Without another word, he crossed the room in a couple of strides and cupped her face, kissing her gently. Hermione sighed into the kiss, but it was over all too soon, and when she heard the exclaims of 'ew' and 'ugh' she remembered why.

Sirius pulled away first, "We don't need to see that!"

"Eww.." Alex continued, but it was half-hearted in its attempt to merely copy his older brother. Hermione saw immediately that the time away together had not discouraged Alex's idolization of his older sibling. Alex was her baby: six years old with wild, brown curls and round, brown eyes. Sirius was his polar opposite in looks, and Hermione wasn't sure _how_ he possibly inherited straight, unproblematic hair, but he was blessed it appeared. Black, thick hair fell around bright, green eyes that reminded everyone of his father and grandmother.

"Did you have a good time?" She smiled down at them, her hand automatically finding Harry's as she leaned into him.

"Yes! I picked all my own clothes, Mummy, _everyday,"_ Alex said with the pride of a fresh college graduate, his chin lifted in the air with the smugness.

Hermione raised a brow, sliding a look to her husband, "Oh, everyday, was it, Alex?"

"I don't think it was every, single, day, Alex - of course you wore some things I picked out and -"

"No, Dad," Alex insisted, a frown overcoming his face, "It was everyday! You said that I-"

"Sirius, tell your Mum about the alarm you learned to build," Harry interjected, pulling his youngest up and into his arms in an effort to change subjects. Hermione only laughed, warmed by her husbands grin.

Sirius' eyes lit up at this, and Hermione wondered if she would have a child more interested in the muggle world than wizarding, "It was so cool! They gave us tools and instructions and I got to use a screwdriver, like Grandad, but it was very small and the teacher said that I could only use it when she was watching but every now and again I tried it on my own because she can't watch you _all the time,_ "

"Hey," Hermione admonished, "You have to obey the rules, it's for your own safety, do you hear me? Good, now this sounds very interesting. I can't wait to see it. Why don't you put your things in your room and we'll get a bite to eat? I want to hear everything."

Her sons nodded without argument, and she thought she saw maybe a glimpse of tiredness there, but before they could go she pulled them both into tight hugs, "I'm so glad you're home, I missed you."

"We missed you, too, Mum!" Both boys reported back dutifully, before scampering toward their bedrooms.

Harry pulled her towards him, lacing his hands behind her back and resting them there casually, "Obey the rules? What filthy hypocrisy, Granger,"

"Only to save your life, no big deal. How did you even manage to camp for two weeks without me around to save your skin?"

He laughed, and the sound was so wonderful to hear after so long that Hermione felt warmth blossom in her chest, "It's actually pretty easy when you don't have a homicidal dark lord with a bounty on your head."

Before she could respond, he leaned in to whisper on her ear, "But god, did I miss you," Those words broke the dam, and in seconds, there were hands everywhere, kisses hot and untamed as Harry walked her back toward the couch. His mouth disconnected for a moment to nip her neck in the spot she loved, and she groaned. The sound alerted her: they were in their living room, their kids were coming back in at any moment.

" _Ow_ , Rose!"

There was some general shouting and scuffling. Hermione and Harry froze as they listened, wearing identical expressions of concern. Harry then whispered, "Rose is home? I thought she was still at Ron's."

She ran a finger across his cheek, "No, she's home, but something is wrong. Don't feel hurt that she didn't come out to you."

He sat back, separating entirely from Hermione save for a hand on her knee, "No, no, I don't - ok, fine, don't look at me like that. I just thought we were still at the age where she'd miss me, you know?"

Hermione felt a flood of emotions looking at her husband, wishing she could dissuade him of all these notions, "Harry, she did miss you. That bloody white owl never left her side for a minute. She asked me everyday about you, talked to everyone about you. She's only ten, we have her for a little while longer." Hermione sat forward then, taking the chance to rectify her clothing as she did, "Honestly, I think something happened at the sleepover. She wouldn't tell me what but she's upset."

Harry looked troubled by this news and hesitated before saying, "I'll - I'll speak to her. I'm sure it's nothing."

Alex came into the living room wailing then, his little legs carrying him across the room with as much speed as he could manage. He threw himself into his Mum's arms, blubbering about his older siblings. Hermione held him, listening and nodded to Harry, "I'll take the boys, you speak with Rose."

"She's so mean! They both are, I _told_ them not to fight.."

* * *

Harry had only reached the top step of the stairs when his son came crashing into his chest. Fortunately, he gripped the banister on time and steadied them both. The risk of it angered him immediately though - if they had both gone tumbling down the stairs, there's no telling the damage they could have sustained. He took deep breaths and closed his eyes, dimly aware that Sirius was now wriggling out of his grasp and clamouring to tell on his sister.

"Dad, I'm _telling_ you, I did nothing wrong! I said Hi Rose did you miss me and she said no so I called her a flobberworm and she called me a proper git and pushed me straight into the wall, Alex is a crybaby you know and starts crying to stop fighting and she pushed me again and I fell onto Alex and then Rose said to watch it and -" He paused here to take a long breath, and finally found the courage to meet his Dad's eyes, which were under a very intimidating frown.

"Sirius, don't call your brother a crybaby. Go to your room for a minute while I talk to Rose."

He kicked the wall, shouting, "I'm always the one blamed! It's not fair, Rose pushed _me,"_

Harry blinked at his sons behaviour, momentarily taken aback by the violent gesture. He shook himself then, "Sirius, do not take your anger out on our walls. Go to your room."

The young boy threw his hands in the air, groaning, but obeyed this time and walked straight to his room. He sighed, trying to assess how hard that interaction was because his daughter was definitely going to be more difficult. Maybe he should warn Hermione about Sirius' incident first.. Or would that simply be procrastination?

No, he would get this over with. He knew it was ridiculous, but there was a part of him that feared the scorn of his children, the inevitable angry words that came from bad moods and misbehaviour. Even though he absolutely knew there was no truth to any hatred they spat, he still felt the initial sting.

Squaring his shoulders and forcing himself to remember he once defeated Voldemort, Harry approached his daughters door. He knocked on it three times, paused and then let himself in, "Rose? What's going on?"

His eldest was sitting on her bed, that was still a little too large for her as her legs dangled over the edge, with her white owl toy clutched to her chest. Her hair looked as if it was plaited previously but now there was just a loose outline remaining, as most of her hair was a curly mass around her, almost shielding her from his eyes. She eventually shrugged but did not respond.

Harry closed the door behind him, "Now, you know it's wrong you start fights with your brother. He was really looking forward to seeing you and there was no need to be so rude. We'll discuss punishment for that later, but there's something clearly wrong, Rose." He knelt in front of her, placing his hands on her knees so he could look into her downcast eyes, "Come on, Rose, you know you can tell us anything."

Her jaw clenched and she looked away, " _You_ don't tell _me_ anything! Why should I tell you?"

Seeing that his appeal was failing, and with no idea of what she was talking about, Harry exhaled and moved to sit beside her. In response to this, Rose scooted away from him, leaving a foot between them. She turned her face to the side, refusing to look at him. Harry was starting to get the impression she was angry with him. He wasn't even here the last two weeks, what could she possibly be angry about?

Something hit him then, and he felt like smacking himself in the head, "Rose, you know I would have taken you away to the camp in heartbeat if you wanted to. You said you would prefer to spend time with Mum and Cathy, which is absolutely fine, but you have to know that both your Mum and I didn't mind where you spent your time - we both love you and wanted you to be happy -"

Rose roughly rubbed her eyes against her forearm, "It's not that! You - you - I think you lied to us, you lied to Mum, you both lied to me. You - you -"

She was so close to telling him the truth now, he knew, but there was an increasing panic welling internally in Harry as he realised he had absolutely no inkling of what she was talking about.

He had never been good for walking softly around a point. "Rose, what did I lie about?"

For the first time she turned to face him, ire imprinted on her young features, "You think of Mum like a sister! You _told_ Uncle Ron that.. you - does she know you said that? And both of you didn't tell me you loved Ginny and Ron. You told Ron… _Brother and sister,"_ She said with disgust, and Rose's flair for drama caused her to make a gagging gesture, "Why did you even marry? Is Ron really my Dad?"

Harry stared at her, and he could almost hear the whizzing as his brain worked through this information. Quite plainly, Rose had disobeyed their rules and watched the muggle 'Harry Potter' movies that were a bit removed from the truth when it came to romance. Part of him was angry that she did this, another couldn't help but feel it was inevitable. He and Hermione had discussed that aspect, making the movies into the forbidden fruit, which resulted in them both having a talk with her to emphasise how untrue some aspects were.

_Based_ on a true story, he had told her emphatically, _not a true story._

Choosing to first comfort her, Harry pulled his daughter over and settled her on his lap. Hugging her close to his chest, he tried to find the right words to assuage her worries, "I love your Mum more than anything - except you three, it's a tie - and what you saw in that movie is not true to life. Remember I told you that? It isn't all true. The movies always seem to want romance for the main people and it was easier to have me and Ginny, Ron and your Mum. No need for other characters then. Does that make sense?"

He leaned back a little, trying to see her reaction, but she only nodded. "Setting aside for a moment that you were not allowed to watch that movie for this very reason, you have seen with your own eyeballs how much we all love each other." Harry nudged his daughter, and was happy to receive a small smile in response. "And _not my daughter?_ "

Harry scoffed in disbelief, exaggerating it to make her laugh, after which he pointed at his two eyes and then hers, "Have you looked in the mirror lately? Where do you think you got those from?"

Rose giggled at this, but it faded abruptly, "but my hair is kind of red.."

"Certainly not Weasley red, and you know my Mum had red hair - we've shown you pictures, Rosie. And your name - a flower, like my Mum, Lily; her sister, Petuna; my Grandmother, Iris," Before she could retort, Harry had scooped her up and stood, twirling in a circle, "and what about all these Quidditch posters? Who catches the snitch every time at the Burrow?"

"Sirius does sometimes.."

"And _who else."_ With no response, Harry began to tickle her, "Only girls who tell the truth will escape the tickles!"

"Okay, okay," Rose said after mere seconds, "I catch the snitch!"

"Yes, you do." They beamed at each other as he settled them back on the bed.

"Alex isn't very good at Quidditch, is he?" Rose asked, sounding minutely sympathetic.

He pretended to think about this but then raised an eyebrow at her, "He _is_ only six.."

Harry watched as she seemed to be deep in thought about what they discussed. He would wait until she was smiling widely at them all again, back to her usual bubbly self. He knew he only had a couple more years of this and Harry wanted to hold on tight before it became a memory.

She was biting her lip in a way that reminded him very much of his wife, and he smiled. All of his kids were a perfect blend of them, each different but emulating them in their own way. He was unreasonably proud of his young children.

Rose broke the silence, "I was being a bit stupid, wasn't I?"

"Hey," He admonished lightly, "You know you're not allowed to say that word. You were a bit silly. It's hard to watch something like that and not compare to real life. Maybe if you watch them again, think of it as a story about someone else. After all, they are actors you're watching on screen."

She turned to him, giving him a full view of the wide, green eyes he was famed for, "Did you and Mum really get left alone in the tent for ages?" He nodded, and she threw out another question before he could speak, "And did you really dance?"

"We did dance, and it was one of my happiest memories from that year. Anyway, to you and your brothers disgust, you see Mum and I kiss all the time. You know how much we love each other."

"Yes, but did you really kiss Aunt Ginny? Did you kiss Uncle Ron? I watched it with Dom and Cathy, and Cathy was really sick watching Uncle Ron kiss that girl in your sixth year but I told her that grown ups sometimes do that before they find their husband or wife and she said but why wasn't he dating my Mum, they were in the same year, and I didn't know why and I didn't know why you and Mum weren't dating either - did you not love each other? Did you love Aunt Ginny and Uncle Ron more?"

He took a deep breath, "Rose, most parents have dated other people in their past. We were all too young in school, we weren't ready to be married and be with the person we loved the most. Everyone is so happy right now and there really isn't _anyone_ in the world I would rather be with than your Mum. I know she feels the same way."

She fell quiet again, processing the new information. He hoped she was beginning to understand that he was not going to rehash everyone's dating history, he was not going to go into detail about who dated who - he wasn't a gossip column and it ultimately did not matter. Harry did date Ginny briefly, but it was when he was sixteen; they were kids. Ron and Hermione only kissed in the heat of the battle, they never even bothered to pursue their romance any further after the war.

"The dance was very romantic, Daddy. Did - did you visit Nana and Grandad's graves together?"

Harry wasn't sure why a lump formed in his throat at that. He had visited many times since, and had even been accompanied by the children on occasion. Blinking away a burning feeling, he answered, "Um, yes. We did."

"That was sad, I cried," She said, but she was compassionate and earnest rather than sad, trying to let him know she took it seriously. Harry's chest twisted at the expression on her face, and just when he thought he could handle continuing the conversation, Rose moved to throw her arms around his shoulders and squeeze. Her reach was small around his neck but it was poignant nonetheless and when she whispered with such sincerity, 'I love you, Dad', Harry thought his heart would burst.

"I love you, too, Rose."

He knew there would be lots of questions, discussions, some punishment and _absolutely_ some light therapy to deal with it all, but Harry was also sure in this moment that all was well.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. This was a bit different to my usual - good to get out of the comfort zone now and again, right?
> 
> I think the Potter kids here would certainly need some light therapy to deal with having seen the footage of their Dad dying, their grandparents dying, their uncle dying, their Mum tortured, etc. But I don't think there would be much hiding the movies if this was in fact a real scenario. The idea actually came when I was listening to a podcast talking about horror movies and they touched on Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I watched at age 10 at a sleepover (knowing my parents wouldn't allow that) and was scarred haha
> 
> As for the kids names... I like Rose as it follows the flower pattern, Sirius as I believe of everyone this is who Harry would name his kid after and, finally, Alex as a touch to Hermione's family - in this universe it's after someone in her family. Amelia and Catherine are the only names I gave to Ron's kids, but in my mind he has quite a few in this universe. Dominique was of course Fleur/Bill child.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Thank you very much for reading, please leave a review if you feel up to it :)


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